The quiet man hidden among Leeds United jokers named 'perfect addition' by Daniel Farke

They tend to make themselves known, as extroverts will. You have Georginio Rutter with his flamboyance, his tunnel-cam whooping, dressing room singing and rocking up at the stadium dressed up for Halloween for no other reason than to post a social media video. You have recent addition Connor Roberts and his TikToks. You have Archie Gray and Joe Rodon and their mostly playful jibes and one-upmanship.

Every team has them and needs them, the characters who bring dressing rooms to life and pick spirits up off the floor. Leeds United alumni who fit the bill include Robert Snodgrass and Luke Ayling. "Snodds was a fantastic footballer as we all know, but he was also a very funny character around the training ground and journeys to away games," Jermaine Beckford told the YEP. "He kept the lads on their toes with the pranks he’d pull and the jokes and stories he’d recount."

Glen Kamara said, of Ayling: "He's a character. Funny guy, honestly. Trains well, works hard. Me and him got along well, we both were at Arsenal when we were in our youth but never actually met each other. He always had a bit of banter about that." Patrick Bamford previously cast his vote for Ayling as the funniest man at Thorp Arch: "The funny one of the group I would say in terms of if the boys are ever down or there is ever a little bit of flatness in the group, Bill is always there to kind of bring it back, whether he is making stupid comments about him playing in the Champions League or just random things, it always makes the atmosphere lighter around place."

Not everyone can or wants to be the joker. There are quiet men, too, like Pascal Struijk, who never felt the need to broadcast information on significant life events like his wedding or the birth of his daughter. There are men we never really get to know on any level, like Helder Costa, who in four years as a Leeds player never once spoke to the media and by extension the fanbase in general.

Ilia Gruev has carried out media duties in his first season at Elland Road and did so recently after the win over Stoke City, so he's not exactly a mystery man or a recluse. But where horse-owning, Manga-loving, ski-vacationing fashionista Rutter is something of an open book, Gruev, whose Instagram account has lain silent since he celebrated his arrival at Elland Road, remains somewhat of an unknown quantity. His boss Daniel Farke says to see the 23-year-old in action on a football pitch is to know him.

"You could sense which type of character he is when you watch him playing," said the German. "No one on the pitch covers more distance than Ilia. He's always solid, always reliable, plays in possession with very rare mistakes, good on the ball, disciplined, professional, top work ethic - so you can also imagine he's exactly like this off the pitch. From the moment he walked in he was humble, down to earth and also patient. Often first in and last out on the training pitch, interested in extra work with the sports scientists, how to add strength to his body. He's one of the most professional players I've ever worked with."

Farke was a big fan of Gruev even before the pair started to work together at Leeds. The Bulgarian international did enough at Werder Bremen to catch Farke's eye and make him an attractive target for the summer 2023 transfer window. It took time for Gruev to show everyone else what Farke had seen, but the second half of the season has been revelatory because since January 13 he has been present for all-but 15 minutes of Leeds' Championship schedule and any argument for him to disappear back out of the team has simply become a non-starter. He passes the ball accurately when Leeds have it and hunts it aggressively when they do not. Farke believed it would be like this, eventually.

"We have lots of competition with Ethan Ampadu, Glen Kamara, Archie Gray, but we thought he would be a perfect addition for us," said the manager. "You saw him growing day to day in training and just due to the quality of our midfielders he had to stay patient and on it. I was sure when I unleashed him he would repay it. But he has to keep going, he has to improve further, work further on and to speak about a quality player is just allowed after many months, not a few weeks. We're all happy we've got him."

Whether or not he will ever be spoken about in the same breath as the big characters in this Leeds United team, Gruev has finally established himself as one of the big players.